30 November 2014 was a dark Sunday full of terror. Atletico Madrid and Deportivo de la Coruna met in the Spanish league, but radical fans of both clubs decided to meet to celebrate sunrise in a very original way: to start an open fight till some external circumstance would put an end to the combat. External causes could be related to police intervention or, in the worst cases, the death of some contender or the moment when the two gangs tried to run away in order to save their own skin.

This is the last occasion in the unfinished history of clashes between ultras groups. Sentiments and justifications don’t exist in this fights. Violence is the only method of self-expression the radical ultras know. They don’t care where to fight if it’s Sunday morning or that in the park they meet there are kids playing and the elderly walking in search of early-morning freshness.

No, for those ultras nothing matters. A Deportivo de la Coruna fan went around Spain to fight brutally but died of choking. But if there hadn't been such a dramatic outcome, barbarian behaviour would probably have been inadvertent as one more incident of football hooligans, a collateral harm to the so-called best league in the world.

The history of violence in Spanish football may be not so terrible as in other countries. But you need to be careful, even though the number of victims doesn’t even reach the scandalous number of other leagues. Yeah, there have been feuds, which can make a list of incidents that have happened for the last 40 years, but the truth is that in Spain ultras groups that tend to violence have always talked in an obvious manner of fan rejection, with a demonstrative passion. A few times they were nicknamed as barbarians meaning the number of people that follow the sports phenomenon in this country.

However, we should look at the other side of the coin and not ignore the fact that there has been left a trace of pain and unease. In Spain ultras groups stood out to exacerbate more nationalistic and patriotic feelings rather than a football rivalry.

It’s clear that Real’s and Atletico’s radical fans will always have differences, but they won’t become so rough like those from Barcelona. In case of extremist fans from the two teams in the capital, they´re influenced by clear ultraconservative ideas and, above all, the Spanish nationalistic style, while Barcelona's fans have always been linked to the Catalan nationalism (regardless of left or right movement). The phenomenon of Ultra started in Spain in the late 70s by imitation.

The spectator stands tried to copy colorful Italian stadiums and the fans tried to imitate esthetics and Tifosi's chants. The model developed from a fan with a cigar and a hat into more a diverse one, which implies the youth that caused incidents every time. It was a transitional period in Spain, when fans were ready to learn everything, but with a lack of experience of those who had never seen anything new. It didn’t differ from what was going on in the spectator stands.

The first problems, aggression, criminal links and gangs' appearance started in the 80s. The history always leads us to Ultras Sur and such notorious skirmishes that they caused, like the one in Oviedo in 1989, but obviously, they are not the only ones. Their “friends”, Brigadas Blanquiazules from RCD Espanyol, started street fights with the most radical fans in Barcelona very soon. The Catalans were capable of destroying a train that was transporting them after their team was defeated by Steaua from Bucharest in the 1986 Champions Cup.

The first deaths came with that spiral of problems. They triggered some distinct laws fighting with violence to emerge. But it’s true that much of what has generated in Spain in recent years has been motivated by small-scale clashes. An organized street fight hasn’t been a football thing, but the majority of the aggression occurred in the confrontations of small gangs, including those that were called “bar clashes”, happened between the fans that didn’t belong to a particular organized gang.

A key incident in the history of Spanish ultras phenomenon took place in the mid 90s. The clubs needed ultras’ support in order to have a peaceful life. Sometimes buying a cheer from a radical group could be the easiest way to avoid the rest of the fans not to blame the players and, especially, the directors for a controversial situation.

It’s an occasion when financing of many of these radical fans happened due to the favours that the clubs themselves permitted: entrance tickets, goods to sell and even donations from some players. It goes without saying, every time ultras from some club end provoking one of their famous quarrels, high-ranking people deny all the links. Such episodes succeeded in Real Madrid and Barcelona, but also in other clubs.

During many years radical ultras were granted more money than any organized society can afford. This double standard makes us analyze the situation and provoking radical fans’ behaviour. The death of Real Sociedad fan Aitor Zabaleta in 1998 because of Atletico Madrid radical fans alerted the Spanish football, but over the time the safety measures fell into oblivion.

When there are no deaths, ultras go out with poise, but every time more cautiously. In 2014/15 season another death made everyone reconsider the whole system, the football league even took such unusual measures as sanctioning chants that offended the rival. Time will tell if this measure enables ultimate extinction of violent acts or, on the contrary, short-term disappearing of scandals and deaths, which will provoke the gangs to get messy with football enemies again.

Click here to read other parts: Part 1, Part 2

Source: El Enganche